Stefon Diggs on changing his narrative and building a rapport with Josh Allen

Yahoo Sports’ Matt Harmon goes 1-on-1 with the Bills dynamic wide receiver. Diggs explains his desire to improve his craft year after year. Transitioning to play with Josh Allen and giving the strong-armed quarterback confidence to throw the ball his way. Stefon Diggs joined Yahoo Sports thanks to Old Spice Dynasty.

Video Transcript

[VARIOUS SPORTS NOISES]

MATT HARMON: All right, hype to be joined now by Buffalo Bills star wide receiver Stefon Diggs. Stefon, thanks so much for hanging out with me today, man.

STEFON DIGGS: Appreciate you. Thanks for having me on the show. I really appreciate it.

MATT HARMON: Back before the 2018 season, that summer I was talking to you a little bit about a little wide receiver work that I do, a little charting series where I graded you out as the best wide receiver against man coverage. Now it's driving me crazy hearing everybody else catch up to it. Like, oh this guy, Stefon Diggs, he's, like, such a good runner, always open. What's up with that?

Were you always playing at this level and just not enough people besides me were noticing, or have you taken your game up a notch every single year?

STEFON DIGGS: I feel like I progressively try to get better each and every year. I try to come back better than I was before. That's always a goal. But I think, in the most humble way possible, I've been pretty-- I've been getting open, for the most part. I've been doing my job, you know, for a long time. It's just, you know, sometimes things just happen differently.

But man-to-man coverage, I pride myself on winning any one-on-one battle or even two-on-one battles.

MATT HARMON: Now you're playing with Josh Allen. What has the chemistry and communication been like between you guys, and how is it different, maybe, than what you played with before?

STEFON DIGGS: He's definitely a guy that-- I wouldn't say he's not a guy that likes-- who doesn't like to see their receiver open, you know? But as the season progressed, we spent so little time with each other that he had to have a lot of blind faith.

And the fact that he is one of those quarterbacks with that elite arm, with the arm strength to put the ball anywhere. And as the season progressed, he got more comfortable with it. He start trusting me more. I'd say, bro, give me a chance, or put it on the sideline, or put it here. He'll put it there with blind faith, but not so much blind because he trusted that I was gonna make a play for him.

And, you know, that's kind of how you build the rapport with your quarterback, just making those plays for him, making those catches. And he's building that confidence, like, all right, if I just throw it out there and trust him, he's gonna make the play. So we got better as the year progressed, and I'm just looking forward to the next step.

You know, and I can't wait-- I'm gonna him a little bit of time to his self to enjoy his family, but I'm gonna need you back in like a month or two. So he knows that.

MATT HARMON: Man, I kept telling people, if you've spent more than five seconds with Stefon Diggs and you don't think he wants to win above all else, you're crazy or you're not very good at reading people. And I think that people finally started to see that, too, during the AFC Championship game.

At the end of the game, you stayed out there on the field to just take that moment in, despite the fact that the Chiefs won. What was going through your head as you decided to stay out there and as you watched the celebration for Kansas City go down?

STEFON DIGGS: Throughout that process, it was just hard because those narratives you can't really do anything about. Like, I can't speak on the narrative. I can't say anything about it because it's just formulated opinions based off the circumstance in that moment. For me, it was my job to take that season as a-- take that season into my own arms and just really embrace the process.

After that game, I kind of felt like I let down my team-- I let down my team a little bit, and I felt like it was all on me. You know, I should have did more. I should have did better. I was a leader on this team. You know, I didn't have the C on my chest or anything, but I consider myself a leader.

I wanted to stay out there and not only, you know, respectively salute the team that won, but be out there and embrace that moment because I know I'm gonna be a champion. I know I'm a winner, and the wheels will turn for me one day.

MATT HARMON: Yeah. I think the culture that Buffalo has there, even before you got there-- Sean McDermott and all those guys, Brandon Beane, what they've built, it's just been so impressive. And you were just a perfect fit to drop in there.

And I think that moment-- and I know Sean, Coach Sean McDermott, talked about it afterwards. That's just who you guys are, in being able to support each other in that moment.

STEFON DIGGS: Yeah, 100%. Like, a lot of people drew a little bit of question with the trade because-- with the narrative that was going on, if I was a diva and that kind of thing. And knowing Coach McDermott's team and how that team was, it'll be somewhat of a-- you'll be questioning to see if it's a fit or not.

But anybody who has a conversation with me or knew me on any personal level has a lot of respect for me as a man and as a player because I work extremely hard, I do my job, and I go out there and give it everything I got. So as that relationship built throughout training camp, and I would go at the defense a little bit to just try to get them going, just to see where they were at.

And you got guys like Jordan Poyer, guys like that who are not gonna back down. That's what that team is built on. And I feel like we can continue to build on that, just as far as, like, where we're going and the direction we're going.

MATT HARMON: Stefon, you're here with us on behalf of the Old Spice Dynasty series. Tell me a little bit about what you got going on there.

STEFON DIGGS: Speaking of the pandemic, I know it's pretty hard for people. You know, you might've been on the Zoom call all day. You might be on the couch all day. You could be anywhere. But hygiene is a big thing, and I'm huge on hygiene. Like, I mean, I was even flossing on the sideline at one point just because--

MATT HARMON: Oh yeah.

STEFON DIGGS: It's just, the new Dynasty, it's something that smells good. It's like cologne-quality scent. It's something that you can find at your local Target, so it's not that hard to get your hands on. But it's something to definitely look into because I like to smell good on a consistent basis, you know, and I'm not trying to get too lost in the pandemic where I'm not applying deodorant every day.

So definitely something that you can look into.

MATT HARMON: Stefon, thanks so much for hanging out with us, man. Really appreciate it. And just good luck next season. Hopefully we'll see each other again in person soon when all this stuff is over.

STEFON DIGGS: Appreciate it. Thanks for having me, big guy. Until next time.